


Keep Circulating the Tapes

by clutchpedal



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Saturday Night Dead, episode 28 spoilers, i had an idea that kept going so i had to make it into a small fic (my first!)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 00:15:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19712425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clutchpedal/pseuds/clutchpedal
Summary: The people of Kepler look for normalcy in the days following the revelations and tragedy of recent events, and look for it in what they thought was the weirdest part of their town.





	Keep Circulating the Tapes

It’s the first Saturday after the Events. People in town don’t like to talk about what happened that day much; it’s still a little too weird, and tragic, and embarrassing, honestly. People are trying to make sense of it, but more importantly, are looking for a little normalcy after their town was turned upside down (part of it quite literally) and then overtaken by a strange part of the government.

Everyone in town knew about Saturday Night Dead. A few people were loyal deadheads, tuning in each week, but everyone regards it with that sort of warmth that you get for the parts of what makes your hometown yours, regardless of what they actually thought about horror, or B-movies, or Ned even. It was as much Kepler as the mountain or the sheer number of water parks there were. A bit of weirdness that only existed in the one place they called home. 

So, that Saturday, many people, thinking of their need for normalcy and not the recent tragedy, trying to purposefully *not* think of it, turned into the local public station. At first, some dead air, and people remember and look sheepishly at their reflection in their TV, question what they thought would happen. Then, the camera turns on, and it’s Kirby, in the Cryptonomica. No set dressing or costume, just Kirby. He opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again, and speaks.

“Hi everyone. Uh, we have a recording from an old episode we’re gonna play,” he chokes a bit and continues, “uh yeah. I don’t know if we’ll ever do any new episodes. It’s been a lot of fun doing these, but it wouldn’t really be the same without... you know.”

There’s a few moments as Kirby disappears off screen, and then an episode from several years ago begins to play, and a younger Ned introduces a zombie flick: “They Died and Came Back from the Grave” -- a truly terrible title for a worse film. It’s strange seeing a zombie version of Ned, and not just meaning the terrible costume. At the end, Ned signs off and says goodbye until next week “when Saturday Night Dead will also come back from our grave!” he laughs. The usual credits roll, and the last screen appears, a nod to the MST3K Ned so clearly was inspired by: “Keep circulating the tapes”

Saturday Night Dead was the only thing Ned had never tried to make a buck off. There were no DVD boxsets with various levels of special features (mutually exclusive, of course), not even “official” t-shirts. It hoped to drum up business for the ~~store~~ museum, but rarely did. Really he just did it because he loved it. Loved the movies, the sets, the skits, all of it. So did the fans. Started calling themselves deadheads, making shirts with homemade screen printing techniques, and -- they kept circulating the tapes. With old VHS recorders pulled out of basements, or some creative signal splitting from the more technically minded, they made and circulated those tapes. That Saturday night (Sunday morning technically), they got back on those forums, noticeably quieter without Ned talking to everyone, and began planning.

The next Friday, the news was shared: Saturday Night Undead. Not just a rebranding of the show to rebroadcast old episodes, but a whole new thing and group. Someone had gotten a line on an outdoor projector, they’d borrow a popcorn maker from the school’s football concessions, and they’d show old episodes, and rotate hosting new movies in the spirit of Ned “Horror” Chicane.

**Author's Note:**

> hey it's p wild that a similar thing to this happened as part of the finale? like that's super cool and wild huh  
> shout out to the mcelroys for making another amazing campaign of taz and for just existing and being cool and funny tbh


End file.
